The big home renovation finally started.
Two weeks on from the last blog, the weather has only just shown any trend to the warm(ish) and I've had the furnace going all that time. I did find an electric space heater in the basement so I've supplemented the heating effort with that, but keeping those water lines ice free has been the main target so I have to do what I can.
In the past two weeks, though, we have been using Towed Haul as an emergency kitchen as well as somewhere for the hound and I to retreat to during the day. I did a heap of ironing in there and have watched a few DVDs. I also set up a high gain aerial and network card on the little Netbook PC so that I could stay on the Internet whilst out there. Airstreams are, sadly, brilliant deflectors of radio signals and unless you do something to counter the effect, connecting to a WiFi transmitter just a few metres away is nigh on impossible. Still, I cracked that one and without having to use an external aerial so I'm all pleased with myself.
I did have a minor issue with some water on the floor of the Airstream in the last day or so. I had a poke around in the space where the water pump lives and deduced that a valve on the anti-freeze intake wasn't completely shut. I've not had the problem since resetting the valve so I hope that the issue is resolved. I have to say a big thank you to the contributors on Air Forums for helping me out; it makes a pleasant change not to be doing battle on towing relating topics for once.
This coming week we have the prospect of staying a night or two in the Airstream because the main hallway in the house is being tiled. It's no great problem, of course, especially as we have everything we need out there on the driveway, but camping out there does seem a little strange. Still, we haven't felt the need to deploy the awning and get the deck chairs out; yet!
I'll sign off with a view of the driveway, complete with dumpster and contractor utility trailer; the Airstream's in there somewhere...
A home renovation project pushed us into getting Towed Haul out of hibernation about a month earlier than usual. She will make a fine reserve kitchen, bathroom and even bedroom for a few nights, but I really wish that the weather would warm up a bit. We had the shop "de-winterize" our baby because we will need to use the water systems on board, but that has meant that we've had to have the furnace rumbling away every day to keep everything ice-free; even keeping it at 10C, though, we've used 30 lbs of propane in a week. Keeping it context, that's only $30, but this time last year we'd have not needed the furnace at all. Curse that weather!
When we arrived at the dealer's lot last week, we were a little surprised to see that Towed Haul was not out front. A quick check with the service writer confirmed that they had the work scheduled but a weekend sales event had meant that it had somehow been overlooked. Panic? Not Can-Am RV! They swung into action immediately and, even though their service bays were all occupied with sale units, they put three men on the task out in the yard and in ninety minutes they had our trailer out front and ready to roll. It meant that we were running a little late but to see Towed Haul's orange and red marker lights in the fading evening light was just wonderful.
I had made a slight adjustment to the Eaz-Lift spring bar chains on the weight distribution system, giving it a final one-third link lift, and both the Toadmobile and the trailer sat perfectly level as I made our final pre-flight checks, and that was with two full propane tanks. All was certainly well with the world that evening.
Rather than thrashing down Highway 401 at sixty miles an hour, we took a more leisurely run along the old Talbot Trail, Ontario Highway Three, that runs parallel to the 401. Bowling along at 50 mph on an all but deserted road certainly was a treat as I settled back into towing again, and the journey only took us ten minutes longer than usual, which was good. Over the winter I'd bought a ScanGauge II, primarily to log transmission oil temperature; sadly our Sienna only has a hot/too hot transmission sensor so the ScanGauge can't display that data, but it does display an awful lot of other handy stuff. The horsepower generated, or more accurately the horse power calculated to be generated, was interesting; even pulling away from a standing start, I could still only get 115 hp showing, which is only about 40% of what the car can develop. Actually rolling along it was between 60 and 75 hp, which gives credence to Andy Thompson's piece this month in Airstream Life about how little raw power you really need to get an Airstream moving. As to the transmission temperature, I shall have to get Toyota to fit me a proper temperature sensor at some point in the future.
Back at base, we backed onto the driveway without issue and deployed my new handy-dandy tongue jack support; it replaces an old log that I was worried would split, and this new item certainly does the job, even on our sloping drive. Then the following day we moved all our "stuff" back into Towed Haul ready for service as our temporary lodgings, not realising that the weather was turning cold again. Still, she's lovely to step into when the furnace has been running, even at 10C. Roll on (real) spring and summer, I think the furnace needs a rest!
